August 14, 2014 CAN Meeting Minutes
Louise Marcotte opened the meeting at 7:05 who introduced and welcomed the executive. John Lindsay reported on the activities in the area. Updates on the progress of the community gardens both at Minnow Lake Place and beside the DogPark where picnic table/benches were added for convenience, plus the privacy strips for the fence beside the neighbours’ yard. Thanks were provided to George for the donated work of cleaning off the graffiti in the
There will be an all candidates meeting hosted by the CAN at the 76 Legion hall this fall where they can address the public and circulate information on their ideas/platforms.
Dorothy Klein introduced David Shelsted from the Roads & Transportation Dept of thecity to answer questions submitted by citizens earlier. David Shelsted provided a power point presentation/overview of the proposed project of the enlarging and improvement of Second Avenue. There would be an intersection at Scarlett & across from the cemetery with bus bays on each side. There are 5 lanes proposed at Donna Drive area with sidewalks & bicycle tracks then going to 2 lanes from Kenwood to 1st Ave with paved shoulder facility for bikes along this section. He described the city’s plan for future potential growth as to why the expansion was needed and the lists of previous information meetings held.
The city made revisions to the initial plan based on the feedback of the various concerned groups as follows: wide curb lanes changed to cycle tracks, paved shoulders extended to 1st Ave, pedestrian signals to remain & relocate to Kenwood, addressed drainage issues at 1st Ave.
City stats on daily traffic – 15,000 south of Donna Dr, 10,000 north of Bancroft Dr.
Distance of road edge to key points in the area – BirkdaleVillage – 1 m closer
Adamsdale Park 3 m closer, and Housing Corp – 2-4 m closer.
Storm Water – proposed increase of asphalt 7500 m2 to 19500 m2 which the city is stating will cause less than 5% storm runoff in a 5 yr storm. There will be no storm water treatment for this project.
There is a commitment to hire a consultant by year end to complete the watershed for RamseyLake to prioritize the storm water treatment locations to determine where money will be directed.
The costs for the project is estimated at $6,600,000 in total with the cost of widening alone at $850,000. A roundabout would cost $500,000 more than the cost of the traffic signals.
Project status currently: The city has submitted the supporting documentation to the Ministry of the Environment and is now awaiting the decision.
Questions were posed by the group. There were concerns expressed concerning the need to reduce spending and take advantage of other land the city already has to address the traffic needs.
There were others that were frustrated with a delay and were unhappy that that the complaints were submitted.
There were pros & cons brought up for the roundabouts or traffic signals depending upon the beliefs of the various people. The individuals who had experience with roundabouts in various other communities felt that with education these could provide good solutions.
There were also concerns regarding drainage, water quality and whether adequate studies had been taken to look after the flow of run off.
Questions and concerns regarding pedestrians, children and seniors dealing with crossing the road possibly being a problem.
Louise Marcotte thanked David Shelsted for attending and answering questions for the group.
Meeting adjourned at 8:45 pm.